On Saturday, October 26, 2019 Grande Prairie Legal Guidance (GPLG) hosted the 4th Annual Legal Advice Blitz in partnership with local law firms.

The Blitz began in 2016 when one of the lawyers approached GPLG with an idea - one day a year their volunteers could donate their time for an entire day of giving advice and guidance. The volunteers loved the idea and every year the event continues to grow and expand. They started out offering 30-minute appointments and advised approximately 30 people and quickly discovered they needed to offer more time and appointments.

In 2019, 16 lawyers donated their time, 59 appointments were booked in 45 and 60-minute increments and 52 of those scheduled attended their appointments. The lawyers provided over 40 hours of free legal services in a single day.

This year they loosened the income guidelines to service what they call the “gap” clients – people for whom seeing a lawyer would be a financial hardship, but ordinarily would not qualify within GPLG’s financial guidelines. The response was overwhelming – the Blitz was full within the first few days of being advertised.

Unfortunately, due to physical space limitations they were not able to accommodate all who wanted to register. They also increased the length of the Blitz by one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon to schedule the maximum amount of people.

One purpose of the yearly event is for the lawyers to support the community by offering their services free to people with a legal concern who can't easily afford the cost of a consult. Another is to raise awareness of free and low-cost legal services available in the Grande Prairie area.

A special thank you to all the participants who attended their appointments, the GPLG Program Assistant Ginette Gagnon, the Volunteer Services Bureau for lending their offices and the volunteer lawyers: Melissa Erickson from Rigler Delacruz LLP, Joe Canavan from Dobko & Wheaton, Tyler Vant Erve & Drew Pearson from KMSC LLP, Jocelyn Innes from Innes Law, Nathan Fry, Ryan Fedoruk and Joel Sandor from Hayes & Fry, Derek Van Tassell & Kaylee Ness from Stringam LLP, Lola Antonius from Antonius Law, Yuri Shapoval from Yuri Shapoval Law, Patrick Wilson and Keeth Raveendran from Gurevitch Burnham and Amara Ijomah from Taylor & Company for graciously donating their professional services.